Quebecor Media Inc., Cogeco Cable Inc.and Eastlink launched an online campaign Tuesday to generate public opposition to BCE Inc.’s proposed $3.38-billion agreement to acquire Astral Media Inc. The campaign, called “SayNoToBell,” calls on Canadians to submit letters voicing their concerns about the acquisition to the federal heritage and industry ministers, members of Parliament, and the CRTC. “What we’re doing here today is we’re going...
The CRTC approved BCE Inc.’s proposal to establish a Broadcasting Accessibility Fund. The commission said in a decision Tuesday that the new fund, resulting from BCE’s benefits package from the purchase of CTVglobemedia in 2011, will support initiatives working to improve access to the Canadian broadcasting system for people with disabilities. The CRTC said BCE committed to providing $5.7 million to create an independent Broadcasting Accessibility Fund when it purchased CTV, and followed up with a more detailed proposal. “The new fund will serve as a catalyst for the...
Quebecor Media Inc. subsidiary Group TVA Inc. reported profits of $23.7 million for the second quarter of 2012, the company said in a release Tuesday. TVA said in a release the number was up from $13.8 million in the same quarter...
The CRTC is expected to rethink its proposed value-for-signal regime given different marketplace conditions, a change at the top of the commission and a new regulatory environment, industry observers and an insider said. The commission’s proposed value-for-signal regime, released in March 2010, sought to help find an...
AOL Inc. launched a new service in Canada called Huffington Post Canada Music. AOL Canada and the Huffington Post Media Group said in a release Thursday that the new music service combines HuffPost’s blogging platform with music content. The site will feature original one-on-one interviews, exclusive videos and exclusive performances, the...
The online websites of radio stations owned by Rogers Communications Inc. attracted more visits and more unique visitors than a comparable fleet of Canadian radio station websites in the first two quarters of 2012, Rogers said...
Chris Williams has been named the new president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (IAB Canada). IAB Canada said in a release that Williams assumed the position after Paula Gignac announced her departure from the organization in April. Williams, who previously held the position of managing director and senior vice-president at Media Contacts Canada, has more than 22 years of agency experience with 17 years being focused on digital, IAB said. Williams led IAB’s agency council for four years and served as a member of IAB Canada’s board for the past 11 years, the release said....
Blue Ant Media Inc. has added four additional specialty channels to its roster after completing its acquisition of High Fidelity HDTV Inc., the company said Wednesday. In a release, Blue Ant said it has added High Fidelity HDTV’s Oasis HD, eqhd, radX and HIFI HD channels to its broadcast holdings, which include Bite, AUX, and Travel+Escape. Blue...
CBC/Radio-Canada will “either break even or be profitable” with its exclusive Canadian broadcast rights to the Sochi 2014 and the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, Jeffrey Orridge, executive director of CBC sports properties, said in an interview. In a release Wednesday, CBC and the International Olympic Committee (IOC)...
Online video streaming will account for two-thirds of peak bandwidth usage in in the United States in 2015, Internet technology company Sandvine Corp. predicted. The company released an analytics...
The federal Competition Bureau is investigating whether BCE Inc. is using its stable of “high-demand television” channels to place “anti-competitive” restrictions on competing...
One hundred and five low-powered TVO analog TV transmitters scheduled for decommission this week are being offered to local communities to use at no cost, the Ontario Educational Communications...
Google Inc.’s Toronto office has added Leslie Church, Michael Ignatieff’s former communications director, as a senior manager on its communications and public affairs team. Church—who served as the former...
Ontario’s French and English-language public broadcasters will begin decommissioning some of their 123 analog TV transmitters across the province on Tuesday after receiving the CRTC’s permission last week. In a pair...
The CRTC issued amendments to its rules for vertically integrated companies, small broadcast distributors and new media services, and in the process maintained a contested English-language “linkage” rule for vertically...
The Interactive Ontario (IO) board of directors appointed Peter Miller as its new chair, the organization said. Interactive Ontario said in a notice on its website that Miller will take over the role for Mark Bishop, who was a board member for 10 years and held the chair position since 2009. Interactive Ontario said Miller was elected at the not-for-profit organization’s annual general meeting in April and is a lawyer and engineer with 20 years of experience in media, production and distribution. He has held senior positions at Vision TV, CHUM Ltd. and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. Interactive Ontario also said Trevor Fencott from bitHeads Inc. was appointed to the position of secretary and that Fencott replaces Diana Cafazzo “who has been IO’s...
CBC/Radio Canada will rent out its decommissioned analog transmitters for the lower-end fee of $4,800 per year, which community groups said they cannot afford. CBC plans to shut down 607 analog...
The World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) copyright committee concluded two weeks of meetings early Thursday and adopted a working document for a broadcasting treaty. WIPO said in a concluding text that the committee “reaffirmed its commitment to continue work, on a signal based approach, consistent...
Conservative MP Paul Calandra, parliamentary secretary to Heritage Minister James Moore, received $22,000 in political donations at a fundraising party attended by people connected to WorldBand Media Inc., whose radio licence bid is under consideration by the CRTC, The Globe and Mail reported Wednesday. Family, friends and...
CBC/Radio-Canada’s English services will cut three positions from its commissioned and scripted programming division, the public broadcaster said in a release Wednesday. The positions will be cut as the broadcaster merges...
Five months after the service launched in the United States, Research In Motion Ltd. has made its PlayBook Video Store application available to Canadian users of its tablet, a company spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday. Kiyomi Rutledge, a RIM spokeswoman, said in a telephone interview that the PlayBook Video Store became available to Canadian consumers Wednesday and offers the ability to rent or purchase TV programming and video files, which can be downloaded directly onto their tablets. Rutledge said over-the-top service provider Rovi Corp. designed the app and controls the distribution rights to titles in the video store library, which includes new releases and catalogued items. “There’s thousands of titles available on there. There’s new ones everyday,” Rutledge...
American cable and satellite TV subscribers should receive refunds for channels they lose access to during blackouts related to retransmission negotiations, the chair of the U.S. Senate’s...
BCE Inc.’s proposal to spend $40 million in broadcasting benefits on the rollout of mobile broadband services by its subsidiary NorthwestTel Inc. in remote northern communities does not benefit the broadcasting system and is an improper use of the funding, a screenwriters group and a telecom...
Netflix Inc. continues to expand its Canadian subscriber base as customers watch more programs on Netflix, the U.S.-based over-the-top service provider said in a quarterly financial statement Tuesday. In a letter to shareholders, Netflix said its Canadian service added subscribers in the three-month period ending June 30 and that the “median...
BCE Inc.’s deal to purchase of Astral Media Inc. for $3.38 billion is part of an effort for a “virtual monopoly” in Canada’s French-language specialty channel market and should be stopped by the CRTC, Quebecor Media Inc. said Tuesday. In a release, Quebecor said the acquisition would give Bell eight...
The Quebec Superior Court ordered BCE Inc. to pay nearly $1 million in damages and costs to Quebecor Media Inc. as part of a civil lawsuit between the companies related to satellite piracy. Quebecor...
CBC/Radio-Canada-owned specialty channel Explora is not respecting its broadcasting licence, Serdy Media Inc. said in a complaint filed with the CRTC. In a 10-page complaint filed with the CRTC July 17, 2012, Serdy said the programming on French-language channel Explora is similar to programming from Serdy’s Category...
U.S. cablecos have successfully used “advanced services” like digital cable and Internet access to prop up their revenues amid declining TV subscriptions, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said Friday in a report on the country’s video distribution industry. In its fourteenth report on Status of Competition in the...
BCE Inc.'s exclusive mobile rights for this year's Summer Olympics in London are more of an opportunity to showcase the company’s brand and technology with consumers than to seek direct...
Stornoway Communications appointed Kate Tinnerman as its director of sales and affiliate relations. In a release Friday, Stornoway said Tinnerman’s primary focus will be to support all aspects of the company’s broadcast partners and develop new partnering opportunities. Tinnerman will also oversee the direction and management of sales revenues. The company said she will lead “the development of new sales strategies to improve market share across all channels and other Stornoway properties.” Stornoway said Tinnerman brings more than 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and customer relationship management to the new role. “Kate has a track record for making things happen, on time and beyond expectations,” Martha Fusca, president and CEO of...
The CRTC issued a “precedent-setting” decision that will afford Telus Corp. and other broadcast distributors more channel packaging flexibility and give consumers...
The United States and South Africa continued to push for protections against online signal piracy as part of the proposed World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)...
DirecTV has reached a “long-term agreement” with Viacom Inc. for carriage of 17 Viacom channels, ending a dispute that caused DirecTV customers to lose access to a popular specialty channels for more than a week, the U.S. satellite TV distributor said Friday. In a release, DirecTV said the deal ensures its subscribers will have access to...
The CRTC approved an application from Corus Entertainment Inc.'s Telelatino Network Inc. to operate specialty channel Eur-Asian Television Network Inc. The commission said Friday that Telelatino proposed that the new service...
The CRTC approved an application from Shaw Communications Inc. to operate a specialty channel called Global News Plus BC. In the decision Friday, the commission said the regional English-language specialty service would feature a mix of local and regional news, weather, business and sports, as well as entertainment information from British Columbia. CHEK-TV (owned by Tribune Media Services Inc.), the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group Ltd. and Astral Media Inc., as well as CBC/Radio-Canada commented on Shaw’s request, arguing that authorizing Shaw for advertising would reduce the...
Google Inc. said it is disappointed with a decision of France's Supreme Court that ordered the company to prevent automated search term suggestions that could lead to online downloading from unauthorized sources. The court said in a decision July 12 that Google must delete "Torrent," "Megaupload"...
CBC/Radio-Canada corrected the number of analog transmitters to be shut down on July 31, 2012, revising that number from 620 to 607. In details accompanying an April 4, 2012 release on CBC’s website, the broadcaster...
CBC/Radio-Canada will re-evaluate whether its small-market, local stations can continue to cover regional sports and elections following a CRTC decision to phase out a $100 million fund for conventional TV stations, Steven Guiton, vice-president and chief regulatory officer at CBC, said in an interview. The CRTC said...
The CRTC approved an Alberta numbered company's application for a new specialty channel licence called Supernatural TV. In a decision Thursday, the commission said the national, English-language channel is licensed to feature TV series, movies and documentaries focusing on the paranormal realm,...
The CRTC rejected proposed codes of conduct and guidelines from the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA). In a decision Thursday, the commission said it rejected the proposed codes of conduct because they...
CBC/Radio-Canada's programming, including local news shows, will become unavailable using TV antennas in 604 communities across Canada under the broadcaster's plan to shut down its analog transmitters, according to a count...
A CRTC decision to phase out the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF) could lead to “huge” financial losses at small- and medium-market local television stations, said John Pollard, president of independent broadcaster CHEK Media Group. In a divided decision Wednesday, the CRTC...
The CRTC approved CBC/Radio-Canada’s plan to shut down all of its analog transmitters that support 23 English and French-language television stations across Canada. In broadcasting decision...
BCE Inc. released details of its plan for multi-platform coverage of the Summer Olympics in London. Users of the Bell Mobile TV app will get coverage of the Olympics on their smartphones or tablets, Bell said in a release Tuesday. This includes live feeds from channels owned by Bell and Rogers Communications Inc.—the companies with the rights to the games as the Canadian broadcast consortium—as well as an “enhanced viewers guide” and more than 100 daily on-demand highlights. Bell Fibe TV customers will receive 1,100 hours of on-demand Olympic content, including competitions, features on athletes, and the opening and closing ceremonies, the company said. An app will be available through Fibe TV that provides standings and statistics, live scoreboards and video...
The CRTC said Monday it has approved an application from Golden West Broadcasting Ltd. to operate an English-language commercial FM radio station in Winkler, Man., which will replace its AM station CKMW. The commission said in a...
The CRTC said Monday it has approved an application from High Fidelity HDTV Inc. to transfer control of the company and its subsidiaries to Blue Ant Media Inc. In a release, the commission said it valued the acquisition at...
BCE Inc.’s purchase of Astral Media Inc. could mean higher prices for consumers' cable and wireless services, Quebec advocacy group Option consommateurs says. In a release last Friday, Robert Cazelais, general manager...
Last week's Supreme Court decision on fair dealing shows the provision should be interpreted “broadly and liberally” and is a positive outcome for users’ rights, the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) said Friday. The decision by the court in the Province of Alberta v. Access Copyright...
More than 2,200 Canadians have written to the CRTC in opposition to CBC/Radio-Canada's plan to shut down 623 analog TV transmitters, the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) said in a release Friday. CACTUS is campaigning for CBC to allow communities to take control of the local analog TV transmitters the public broadcaster plans to decommission this year. CACTUS says the transmitters that the CBC says it can no longer afford to operate could be used to support wireless Internet networks, mobile services, and local television...
Postmedia Network Canada Corp. said it will take further steps to trim its operating expenses as the company reported lower revenues and more losses. Postmedia, which owns the National Post, the Ottawa Citizen, the Calgary Herald and other Canadian daily newspapers, on Tuesday reported a $12.1 million net loss in the three-month period ending May 31,...
The CRTC has given Asian Television Network International Ltd. (ATN) until Monday to confirm that one of the foreign channels it sponsors for distribution in Canada will stop inserting Canadian advertisements into its programming. In a July 10 letter to ATN president and CEO Shan Chandrasekar, the CRTC said it received a Jan. 10 complaint from FDR...
The leaked February draft of Canada’s trade agreement with the EU is now “completely outdated” as the current version does not contain the most contested provisions of the...
BCE Inc. subsidiary Bell Express Vu served notice Thursday of its intention to lock out 114 television technicians on at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP) of Canada said in a release. In the release, the union said Bell Express Vu plans to lock out members of CEP Local 79M, which represents technicians...
Astral Media Inc. reported higher profits in its third quarter of 2012 despite declining television revenues and pay television subscribers, the company said in a quarterly earnings statement Thursday. In a release, Astral said its overall net earnings were $56.2 million in the three-month period ending May 31, up seven per cent from $52.6 million...
Corus Entertainment Inc. reported lower third-quarter revenues across its broadcasting assets and warned of challenges in the months ahead. In a financial statement for the third quarter of 2012, released Thursday, Corus said revenues fell for both its television and radio segments for the three-month period ending...
Cogeco Cable Inc. reported slightly higher operating profits in the third quarter of 2012 despite a fall in cable subscribers and slower growth in customers for its high-speed Internet and telephone segments. Cogeco on Thursday reported $53.2 million in profits for the three-month period ending May 31, up from $52.4 million during the same period...
The Supreme Court of Canada put to rest copyright collective Re:Sound's proposed tariff on the “performance” of music in movie and TV show soundtracks. In a unanimous decision Thursday penned by Justice Louis LeBel, the court dismissed the group’s appeal in Re:Sound v. Motion Picture Theatre...
The Supreme Court set aside a Copyright Board decision and said music rights holders cannot charge communications royalties from services like Apple Inc.'s iTunes for file downloads containing copyrighted music. In a copyright law decision on Entertainment Software Association v. SOCAN (case No. 33921), the court emphasized the importance of technological neutrality and said “an additional layer of protections and fees” should not be imposed “based solely on the method of delivery of the work to the end user.” Doing otherwise, the court said, “would effectively impose a gratuitous cost for the use of more efficient, Internet-based technologies.” The...
The CRTC issued a call for comments on a series of broadcasting applications that will be under consideration at hearing in Montreal starting Sept. 10. The consultation, opened Tuesday, said the hearing will consider four BCE...
Cindy Witten, the National Film Board’s director general of English programming, will leave the organization in September to work as a consultant for startups and small digital companies, the government agency said Wednesday. In a release, the NFB said Witten was a part of a “core senior management team that led the NFB into the digital world, and credited her with creating the agency’s “first...
SiriusXM Canada added more than 214,000 subscribers over the past year but lost $4.2 million in its most recent quarter, parent company Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. said in a quarterly financial statement Wednesday. In a release, Sirius said the loss was lower than the combined $9 million Sirius Canada and XM Canada lost during the same...
Canadian broadcasters spent $51 million in tangible benefits stemming from the purchase of English-language television stations during the 2011 broadcasting year, Boon Dog Professional Services Inc. said in a new report. In a release, consulting firm Boon Dog said it found that $43 million of that money, or approximately 84 per cent, was devoted to...
As part of BCE Inc.’s acquisition of Astral Media Inc., the company plans to auction off 10 radio stations as early as this month to satisfy the CRTC’s radio ownership rules, Bell said in documents filed with the commission. Bell, which currently owns 33 English-language radio stations across the country, said in March it had reached a deal to purchase Astral for $3.38 billion. Astral owns 84 stations. Under the CRTC’s common ownership policy, broadcasters are limited to...
The Canada-EU free trade agreement's provisions on intellectual property are now the same as those contained in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), according to a leaked draft...
The Jim Pattison Broadcast Group promoted former sales manager Gary Dorosz to the head of its Lethbridge division, the company said last week. In a release, the company said Dorosz, who has been with the company since 2004, will assume the positions of division general manager and general...
BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. propose to remove the CRTC's restrictions on how much Canadian content overspending can be carried over from one year to the next, the commission said...
The CRTC opened a consultation on proposed broadcasting amendments that would allow specialty services and third-language channels to operate without licences, the commission said Friday. In a notice...
A numbered company in Alberta has received a licence to operate a national, English-language, Category B specialty service focused on crime-related dramas, documentaries and movies, the CRTC said Friday. In its decision, the CRTC said The Crime Network would primarily offer programming from the...
Poynt Corp., the Canadian maker of the popular Poynt mobile app, has begun the process of filing for bankruptcy under the federal Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, the company said Friday. In a release, Poynt said its creditors must wait at least 30 days before calling in any outstanding debts with the company after it filed a “Notice of Intention...
The CRTC approved a set of closed captioning quality standards and will require broadcasters to implement them starting Sept. 1, 2012, the commission said Thursday. In its decision, the CRTC said lag time between the audio and...
CBC/Radio-Canada appointed Fiona Conway to the position of executive director of programming for CBC News and regional centres, the broadcaster said in a release Wednesday. In a release, CBC News said Conway is a Gemini, Emmy and Peabody award-winning news producer who began her career at CFRA Radio and most recently held the position of executive...
Rights holders are expected to use Bill C-11's new “enabler” provision to target Canadian torrent search engine isoHunt.com, legal experts say. Section 27 of Bill C-11, which received royal assent last Friday, includes an “enabler” provision for rights holders to sue web services for copyright infringement if their primary purpose is enabling copyright infringement. IsoHunt Inc., an Internet startup founded in 2003 by Gary Fung, an entrepreneur in Vancouver, B.C., is one of the world's leading BitTorrent search engines. Torrent news site TorrentFreak in January ranked isoHunt as the fourth most-visited torrent site in the world, behind first-ranked The...
The CRTC will issue a decision by June 18 on an arbitrated carriage dispute between BCE Inc. subsidiary Bell Media and a group of independent broadcast distributors, CRTC spokesman Denis Carmel said. “There has been no...
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) is “very pleased” the government’s copyright reform bill has been passed into law with a new exemption for radio broadcasters, the industry group said in a statement Wednesday. “After more than a decade of battling the ephemeral tax and the unfair...
Shaw Communications Inc. plans to move the dial position for its digital Ottawa channel that rebroadcasts the company's Toronto Global station, the CRTC said Wednesday. In a release, the commission said it has...
CBC/Radio-Canada will continue to seek the broadcast rights to the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games but will not make a money-losing bid for the sports rights, said Jeffrey Orridge, executive director of...
OTTAWA—The Conservative government will put regulations in place to exempt microSD memory cards from a possible copyright levy, Industry Minister Christian Paradis said Tuesday. At a news conference at a Future Shop store in Ottawa's south end, Paradis said the Tory government's Bill C-11, the Copyright Modernization Act, “struck the right balance” to ensure artists are properly compensated for their work and that Canadians do not pay fees or penalties for adopting new technologies. Bill C-11 received royal assent Friday. “That is why our government cannot...
Advertisements on mobile applications will generate $7.1 billion US in revenues globally by 2015, Juniper Research said in a new report Tuesday. The report, called “Mobile Advertising Messaging, In-App and Mobile Internet Strategies 2012-2017,” said growth in “in-app ads” will be driven by a rise in rich media inside ads and the...
Federal legislation to update Canada’s copyright regime received royal assent Friday after passing through the Senate unchanged. Bill C-11, the Copyright Modernization Act, passed third reading in the Senate after the committee studying the bill reported it back to the upper chamber without...
A CRTC decision that awarded Calgary’s 95.3 MHz and 106.7 MHz frequencies to an out-of-province company running an English-language commercial station is “fatally flawed,” three...
The CRTC said Friday it has approved an application from numbered company 1637191 Alberta Ltd. to operate a national Category B service called Inside Movies. The commission said in a release that the company, controlled by Larry...
The Canada Media Fund (CMF) appointed Rob Scarth to its board of directors, the CMF said Thursday following its general assembly in Montreal. In a release, the CMF said Scarth has more than 20 years of experience in policy development, regulatory affairs and business consulting. Scarth, who was nominated for the position by the Canadian Coalition for...
Proposed legislation in the U.S. that seeks to fundamentally change the carriage framework for broadcasters and television providers is expected to proceed to a Senate committee hearing this summer, analysts say. Republican Senator Jim DeMint (South Carolina) and Republican Representative Steve Scalise (Louisiana)...
CBC/Radio-Canada reached an agreement with Shiny Inc. to use Shiny Ads, an “intuitive interface” for digital advertising campaigns on CBC.ca, the companies said Thursday. Toronto-based Shiny Inc. is an...
The Aboriginal Peoples’ Television Network (APTN) appointed Karyn Pugliese as director of news and current affairs, the network said Wednesday. APTN said in a release that Pugliese will assume her new role July 9. APTN said Pugliese has more than 15 years' experience in the broadcasting and communications sectors. She first held a position with APTN in Ottawa, where she worked as a reporter and correspondent...
Shaw Communications Inc.'s revenue for the third quarter ending May 31, 2012, reached $1.28 billion, comparable to the same period last year, the company said in a release Thursday. The company said its revenue reached $3.79 billion for the nine-month period ended May 31, up by 6.4 per cent from the same period a year earlier. Shaw said its basic cable TV subscribers fell by 21,515 in the third quarter, which analysts attributed to a competitive push from Telus Corp. for subscribers. Shaw said that digital phone line subscribers rose by 29,142 in the third quarter to reach a total of...
The federal government is investing $5.3 million into eight southern Ontario technology companies to help small companies commercialize their products and create high-tech jobs in the region, the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev) said Wednesday. In a release, FedDev said it will provide ActivDox Inc., ClevrU Corp.,...
NAC TV, a local access television station in Neepawa, Man., asked the CRTC to receive funding from its Small Market Local Programming Fund (SMLPF), the independent broadcaster said in a May 18 letter to the commission. The letter...
The CRTC approved a new CBC/Radio-Canada specialty channel licence and added China’s state-run broadcaster's French and English-language services to the lists of foreign channels eligible for distribution in Canada, the...
The federal Conservative government has appointed Rémi Racine as new chair of CBC/Radio Canada’s board of directors on a five-year term, the government said Tuesday. In a release, Heritage Minister James Moore’s office said Racine was first appointed to the public...
John Hinnen is has been named vice-president of news for Rogers Communications Inc. subsidiary Rogers Media Inc., the company said Tuesday. Rogers Media said in a release that Hinnen will immediately assume the position of vice-president of news for Rogers Media television and radio. The company said Hinnen will oversee the direction of Rogers Media’s television and radio news brands nationally. “United under one vision, John will lead our suite of television and radio news brands into the next generation of news coverage to create an unparalleled audience experience,” Scott Moore, president of broadcast at Rogers Media, said in a statement. Rogers said Hinnen has 40 years' experience in the industry, serving in several senior positions at Rogers Radio. He joined...
The new Beijing Treaty approved at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Diplomatic Conference on the Protection of Audiovisual Performances this week will help performers maintain the integrity of their works and obtain financial compensation for their use, industry groups say. The...
Rogers Communications Inc. will probably conduct a “small trial” of network personal video recorder (PVR) services to test the new copyright regime if there are no amendments to...
Canada's over-the-top television landscape will become more competitive this summer as Sony Corp. launches Google Inc.'s Google TV product in the country for the first time. Sony Canada...
BCE Inc. subsidiary Bell Media Inc. and CBC/Radio-Canada submitted two failed bids for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games and the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and will not jointly pursue the rights any further, the broadcasters said...
News talk stations are starting to fill a need on the FM dial and are now leading radio markets in North America and globally, Paul Tietolman, managing partner of radio company Tietolman Tetrault...
The Senate Standing Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce heard from 22 witnesses Friday in the second of three days of scheduled meetings to finish up with the Conservative government's...
A joint bid by BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. to purchase a controlling stake in Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) will give the two companies unfair...
Canadian digital media companies tend to be small and face problems finding private-sector financing, but new opportunities like TV app development continue to arise, new consultants’ reports...
Four U.S. broadcasters have hired an Ottawa firm to lobby the CRTC on its distant signals regime as Canada's Supreme Court considers a decision that could impact the system. According to a May 25 federal lobbying registration, Public Interests Research and Communications Inc. consultant Francis Schiller has been hired to represent a coalition called the Working Group of U.S. Television Stations on Signal Retransmission in Canada and to lobby on Canadian broadcasting issues including the CRTC's distant signals regime that came into effect last September. The regime, outlined in an...
